For Love and Honor

Okay, so it's not exactly Regency. Actually, it's medieval historical fiction...and it is fantastic.

For Love and Honor, Jody Hedlund's newest novel, will release next week on March 7th. I was truly blessed to win an advance review copy in a giveaway, and I am thrilled to feature the novel here today.

Jody writes inspirational and romantic historical fiction and has penned the love stories of Martin Luther and Katharina (Luther and Katharina) and John Newton and Polly (Newton and Polly). For Love and Honor is part of her YA historical romance series.

Set in 1391 England, the story follows the courtship of seventeen-year-old Lady Sabine and twenty-year-old Sir Bennet. Lady Sabine and her grandmother visit Maidstone Castle with the intention of purchasing art. On the way there, she and her grandmother are accosted by highway robbers. In order to scare the bandits, Sabine reveals a secret about herself: she harbors a birthmark--a red blemish on her forearm. She suggests that this might mean she's a witch. The robbers flee. Once at Maidstone, Lady Sabine meets the young, handsome Sir Bennet.

Threatened with his family's impending financial ruin, Sir Bennet has been told he must marry for money, as neighboring lords seek to attack his family in order to satisfy their debts. But Sir Bennet despises the notion of marrying a woman for her wealth. Nevertheless, when he meets Lady Sabine, he likes her for who she is, not her money.

Eventually, Lady Sabine falls for Sir Bennet and he for her. Meanwhile, word of her birthmark has spread to those who would do harm to Sir Bennet's family. Lady Sabine is accused of being a witch, placing the couple in a dangerous, life-threatening dilemma. Will Sir Bennet be able to save his love before she is burned at the stake? Will trust and love win out over secrets and darkness? The ending of For Love and Honor is fast-paced and very suspenseful, with just the right mix of medieval battle and romance.

Although the novel is marketed toward teenagers, adults will enjoy it as well. It is not heavy on history by any means and focuses mostly on the budding romance between Sabine and Bennet. With the popularity of the CW's teen-targeted show Reign, medieval and Elizabethan romances will most likely surface with some regularity in the book world. Put in the right context, this time period can be very romantic, indeed. I was always a fan of Sharon Kay Penman's Here Be Dragon series for that very reason. I look forward to reading more of Jody Hedlund's historical fiction, including the remainder of the YA series.

You can pre-order For Love and Honor HERE and check out Jody's website and her complete selection of books HERE.

What good books have you read lately?

Cover Reveal and My Place in the Wall

On May 12, 2017, my newest novel Suburban Dangers will be released through Pelican Book Group. It will be published under their Watershed imprint, which is YA—a slight departure from my usual women’s contemporary genre. Originally the novel had too many POVs, one of which was a sixteen-year-old girl. She was only meant to be a backstory, but she became the main story. Steven James says to write what the story needs not necessarily what was written in your original plans (or something like that; I’m paraphrasing).

Suburban Dangers carries the same theme as Captives—sex trafficking. Here is the cover (I really, really love this cover!)

Back in May, I attended the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I attended for the first time in 2015, and it was life changing. It was no different this time. But this year Captives was a finalist in the women’s contemporary category for the Selah Award—an incredible honor and such a surprise.

It was Tuesday, the third day of the conference, and I was having a low spell. No particular reason, I just began to doubt what I was doing. Should I write Christian fiction? Or maybe I should just write for a secular audience. Maybe my subject matter was just too gritty. Or maybe I should write love stories and forget it. Frankly, I felt a little depressed about it. I skipped a class and sat out in the gorgeous mountain sunshine on the backside of one of the buildings, and I prayed. And I listened. And I didn’t hear anything. OK, no problem. Moving on to listen to the key note speech for the evening.

Eva Marie Everson gave the keynote speech that night. The message was that every writer has their “place in the wall,” and she used Nehemiah as her biblical illustration. When Nehemiah, the king’s cupbearer, began to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem, he was ridiculed. Bystanders told him his wall was useless and that he should come down and give it up. Nehemiah’s words: “I am not coming down from the wall. I’m doing God’s work.” Eva Marie asked all of the conference attendees (some 450 of us), to line the walls of the conference room in an illustration that each of us, no matter what sort of writing we were doing, all had a place in the wall in which we did God’s work.

The illustration was powerful. It was what I needed to hear. But the message didn’t stop there.

Later that night during book signings, I asked a well-known writer to sign a book for me (I won’t divulge her name as I do not know if she wishes this to be public knowledge). As I held up my name tag so she could write my name in the book, she suddenly said, “You’re the one that wrote the sex trafficking novel, right?”

Completely floored, I assented that I was.

“Well, thank you for writing that because my daughter is being trafficked.”

If the walls of the building had tumbled down around me at that moment, I wouldn't have been more surprised. She went on to say, “I couldn’t have written that story. I haven’t seen her in five years, have no idea where she is, and the only way I can deal with the pain is not to allow myself to have any feelings about it.”

Right then, I knew God was speaking to me. I have asked you to write this particular subject matter for a reason. It was one of the most powerful moments of my life. It may not be a pretty or fun topic, but it’s real and it’s happening and the stories need to be written.

The next night was awards night and the final evening of the conference, I did not win the Selah Award. That was fine with me. Cynthia Ruchti (a Christy Award finalist for the same book) won for As Waters Gone By, and I was very happy for her.

Near the end of the evening Edie Melson, director of the BRMCW Conference gave out the Director’s Choice Award. I wasn’t even paying attention; I was fiddling with something on the table or with my phone, so when my name and the title of Captives was read out as the winner in the fiction category, I nearly fainted. I fought tears all the way to the stage to accept this most unexpected award. When I stood on the stage with Edie, she whispered to me, “I could not get this book out of my mind, and that’s why you won.”

 

God hugged me. I felt it. It was truly as though God reached down and grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “Do not come down from this wall. You’re doing My work.”

So when Suburban Dangers turned into a YA novel, I figured that was God’s work too. He alone knows who needs to read it.

Have you ever felt like you received confirmation that you were on the right track?